Page 8 of A Thread of Breath and Bone

His tongue finds mine, and a soft gasp escapes me when he grips the backs of my thighs and lifts me into his arms.

“Ryker,” I whisper against his lips, pulling back slightly, suddenly aware of our audience.

He turns his back on them without a care. “All done here,” he calls over his shoulder as he carries me back toward the transport.

He doesn’t set me down until we reach our room.

I know somewhere in the deep recesses of my mind, now is not the time to be thinking these unholy thoughts about Ryker, but we both know this is a distraction—one I'm willing to get lost in.

“You’re freezing,” he mutters, breaking away long enough to get those two words in before I’m sealing his mouth over with mine.

We should stop. We should be getting ready to leave. And yet…

I don’t want to.

As if reading my thoughts, Ryker lowers me onto the bed, and then I feel the delicious press of his body against mine.

“Soraea, love,” he whispers, brushing back my hair, “you keep wincing. And while I’d love nothing more than to keep kissing you, I’m not interested in causing you pain.”

“I’m—”

His lips capture mine, silencing me. A dark laugh slips from him. “Whatever sassy comeback you were about to say, keep it to yourself. All I want to hear from those beautiful lips is, ‘Thank you, Ryker, my caring, thoughtful, handsome mate.’”

Maybe it’s petulant, but I push his hand away and stick out my tongue instead, making him smile so big his dimple shows.

“Time to get changed,” he says, lifting himself off me and heading to the wardrobe where my clothes still haven’t been unpacked after our rushed departure from Mori.

He digs through my bags until he finds my Nakata corset, my Xori pants, and a semi-wrinkled black shirt. Ryker helps me off the bed, turning me around so my back is to him when he unzips the gown I’m wearing and presses a delicate kiss to my bare shoulder.

I shiver.

“I’ll step out so you can dress,” he whispers.

I nod, holding my dress to my front with the rest loosely hanging off my frame. As much as I want to beg him to stay, he has only seen me naked once before, and that was a completely different situation. Him seeing me naked now, especially in the daylight, feels…exposing.

The door clicks shut, allowing me a few moments to collect myself. If I’m being honest, I don’t know how I feel, but I’m thankful he knows me well enough to stop, even if I don’t seem capable of stopping myself.

The moment I’m alone again, the fear comes rushing back.

There’s nothing special about me. Sure, I have this strange gift of starlight, but what makes my gift the magic that is supposed to save us? Why didn’t the gods send me some sort of instruction manual? Maybe if they had, Kuron would be alive.

The staff would be alive.

I slip on my boots when Ryker enters the room. Wordlessly, he kneels, setting my boot on his knee, lacing it for me.

Sapphire eyes swirl with unease when they meet mine. “I’ve got you,” he says, “and I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”

Baedyn comes into view, and I’d be lying if my hands weren’t clammy from being back here pretending as if nothing had happened.

“Where should I drop you, Princess?” The captain glances at me.

“The main school launch pad.”

He nods and lowers us into Baedyn’s atmosphere, not far from Drithm. The comms ring with an all clear.

I head back to the entrance, where Ryker is speaking in hushed tones with our security team. I hear Rune say, “We need to look into Princess Aolyn. We can’t be sure she wasn’t involved.”

“She couldn’t know. She was the one to warn me,” I interject, stepping closer. All heads swivel toward me. “Aolyn wouldn’t have let her father do this. Besides, we can’t even be sure it was King Alexi.”